Fighting for soldier's lives

By: BJ Allen

Posted: 11/17/08

Addressing the affects of war on all involved, Avila University hosted, "The War Within: An Exhibit Revealing the Veteran Suicide Epidemic and the Hidden Wounds of War" last Tuesday.

Key speakers at the forum included Army Infantry Sergeant Michael Pruitt, Army combat medic from 1992-2000 Amanda Cherry-Haus and Marine veteran Valarie Fletcher, but the floor was open for all to engage in the conversation.

The conversation centered around the affects of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on veterans, the suicide epidemic that has ensued and how to provide medical care to veterans.

"The suicides and psychiatric mortality of this war (Iraq and Afghanistan) could trump the combat deaths," Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), said.

As of Nov. 13, 2008, the total number of soldiers lost to the war in Iraq was 4,196 and in Afghanistan, 555.

These numbers do not include the suicides of soldiers after returning home.

In 2007, there were a total of 2,100 attempts of suicide by active duty soldiers compared to 350 suicide attempts by the enlisted in 2002.

"The scope of the problem (the increasing suicide rate) is scary when you think about it," Vietnam veteran and retired police officer Nikk Thompson said.

Thompson, an MS Crisis Team Coordinator for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, talked about a comrade he had spoken with on the phone upon his return from Vietnam. The comrade was distraught after returning from war and committed suicide shortly after their conversation.

Cherry-Haus, wife of an active duty reservist, explained the difficulties of living with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in daily life.

"His issues are everybody's issues," she said. "We're training the soldiers to be really good soldiers, but we're not training them to be good civilians."

PTSD has an effect on 7.7 million adults in the United States, according to the NIMH.

Cherry-Haus said her husband sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night in a panic because he doesn't have his weapon with him.

"A weapon is like a security blanket," she said. "They come back damaged by what they saw or what happened over there. My husband came home and said, 'I feel like I'm the enemy.'"

According to Thompson, the thing that makes PTSD such a challenge is the military's methods for dealing with any psychological problem.

"If you go to get help for PTSD, you are ostracized," said Thompson.

Pruitt, a member of Veterans Against the Iraq War, said, "The people that helped make this the best country in the world deserve that same best."

Pruitt was stationed in Iraq from April 2003 through April 2004.

Upon his return home, he immediately went and purchased a firearm for that feeling of security that Cherry-Haus spoke of.

The military views any psychological trauma in a very negative light, according to Pruitt. Reported symptoms of PTSD are forced to stay on your record with the military. He compared that to drug abuse, which can be completely wiped clean in military records.

The exhibit that was set up at Avila shed some light on the reality of the numbers in the suicide rate. They had a total of 48 military boots painted white. Those boots represented the 34 Missouri and 14 Kansas enlistees that took their own lives upon returning home.

ballen@unews.com